AUSTIN — Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, an independent candidate for governor, has politically reinvented herself time and again during the past three decades — repeatedly leading to questions of whether her actions are sincere or expedient.

Strayhorn is a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent. She has given up three elected positions and one appointed state job to run for a higher office. And her positions on issues have transformed more than once.

When she left the Democratic Party to become a Republican in 1985, a year after serving as Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale's Travis County campaign co-chairwoman, the Christian Science Monitor asked: "Is party switch of former Austin mayor part of a trend or merely opportunism?"

As she runs for governor this year, some of her opponents question how she supported private school vouchers and now opposes them and how she favored abortion rights as a Democrat, opposed abortion as a Republican and now will not take a stance on abortion policy as an independent.

Faced with these seeming contradictions, Strayhorn said she has always been true to herself, especially on vouchers.

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"I am who I am and who I've always been. Education. Education. Education. First I was a public school teacher, and I don't forget my roots," Strayhorn said. "We're at a critical crossroads in this state. We'll have public education, or we'll not."

But she declined to answer whether she would support or oppose a law that would automatically trigger a ban on abortions if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its Roe v. Wade decision allowing abortions.

"I have made my position very clear," Strayhorn said. "As a mama and a grandmama, I believe in the sanctity of life, but I understand that there are those heartbreaking situations where heartbreaking decisions have to be made."

After a recent speech, Strayhorn briefly answered two questions about her political image but declined to be interviewed for this article.

After her 1985 party switch, Strayhorn told the Houston Chronicle there is nothing wrong with changing parties or positions to more accurately reflect her personal politics.

"If you wanted to be an opportunist, you'd just sit where you are — be a good little girl," she said. "But I've never taken the safe, chartered paths."

Name change

One area where Strayhorn has made changes but not necessarily to her political advantage is in adopting a new last name with each of her three marriages.

She first won office in Austin as McClellan in the 1970s, then won statewide races as Rylander beginning in 1996, then remarried and took the Strayhorn name. After finding it cost her at least 10 percentage points in name-identification in polls, Strayhorn tried to get on the ballot with the nickname "Grandma," a play on her campaign slogan, "One Tough Grandma."

Strayhorn's career of metamorphoses has led to criticism from Republicans backing Gov. Rick Perry's re-election and from Democratic nominee Chris Bell.

"She changes her positions to take advantage of political opportunity. She's a craven political opportunist," said Bell spokesman Jason Stanford.

Perry spokesman Robert Black said, "She has flip-flopped on any number of principled issues — everything from abortion to what political philosophy she subscribes to ... She will do whatever is beneficial to advancing her political career."

Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders said the Perry and Bell campaigns are making "phony attacks" on Strayhorn's record. He said most politicians just pander to their base of support while Strayhorn adapts to changing times and listens to what average people have to say on issues.

"She's always been guided by a core set of principles: educating and protecting children and having fiscally responsible government," Sanders said.

Strayhorn is the only candidate for governor whose Internet site lacks a page dedicated to her position on issues.

But she has staked out positions opposing the Trans-Texas Corridor toll-road project and favoring mandatory 25-years-to-life sentences for child molesters. She also favors moving the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test to the fall so it can be used as a diagnostic tool in public schools rather than keeping it in the spring as a test for grade advancement.

Aiming for higher office

Strayhorn's reputation for expediency grew out of her willingness to abandon an office to reach for a higher one.

Strayhorn left the Austin school board to run for mayor. Before her third term as mayor was complete, she resigned to accept an appointment from then-Gov. Mark White to the State Board of Insurance. She left that post three years early to run for Congress but failed to win.

Under political criticism that she was a job-hopper for higher office, Strayhorn in her 1996 race for the Texas Railroad Commission promised to serve the full six-year term. After just six months in office, Strayhorn announced as a candidate for comptroller, a position she won in 1998.

Jobs were not the only things that changed with Strayhorn.

She won election as comptroller in 1998 with the help of a $950,000 campaign loan from a private school voucher advocate. She repeatedly expressed the desire for a pilot project to test vouchers.

After announcing her run for governor this year, Strayhorn accepted support from public school teachers with a promise to veto any voucher legislation. Strayhorn said she still supports vouchers in concept but that public school funding has declined too far to spend money on vouchers at this time.

Now critical of Perry plans

In other examples, her agency promoted the use of toll roads to expand highways in Texas, recommended privatizing call centers to handle client contacts for Children's Medicaid and supported deregulating tuition at state universities.

Now, she criticizes Perry's plans to build a privately funded toll road — the Trans-Texas Corridor. She also complains that his administration has bungled the implementation of human services call centers and that her recommendation was for a phased-in project.

Sanders said Strayhorn said toll roads were an available method of funding highways but that she never supported the Trans-Texas Corridor. He said she also thought the call centers were a good idea, just poorly implemented by Perry.

On tuition deregulation, Strayhorn's position is that she never thought the Legislature would make drastic cuts to higher education, resulting in larger-than-expected tuition increases.

In her first race for state comptroller, Strayhorn promised not to take campaign contributions from anyone with a pending tax matter before her agency. The comptroller is the state tax collector.

After the Houston Chronicle noted in 2002 that she had taken more than $500,000 from consultants and lawyers representing companies in tax disputes with her agency, Strayhorn said the promise was meant to apply only to the taxpayers, not to their representatives.

Perry's campaign is now criticizing Strayhorn because a tax-consulting firm whose principals are her largest campaign donor apparently received a $50 million fee after her agency gave a $130 million sales-tax refund to Texas Instruments. Strayhorn dismissed the criticism as a "phony attack."

Political party switches

• 1985: "I have been a lifelong Democrat, but I'm going to spend the rest of my life vigorously and wholeheartedly in the GOP."
• Now: "I am a Republican. But I know I must set partisan politics aside and do what's right for Texas. That is why I am running for governor as an independent."

Toll roads

• 2000: Strayhorn in a review of the Texas Department of Transportation recommended toll roads: "Building highways through toll financing rather than pay-as-you-go financing dramatically speeds the time it takes to complete a given project."
• Now: "I am adamantly opposed to this massive toll plan," Strayhorn said. "Rick Perry calls it Trans-Texas Corridor. I call it Trans-Texas Catastrophe, and as governor, I will blast it off the bureaucratic books."

Private school vouchers

• Before: Won election as comptroller in 1998 with the help of a $950,000 loan from voucher advocate James Leininger. Strayhorn said she supported vouchers as a means of giving parents a choice when their children were trapped in failing schools.
• January: "When I've talked about vouchers; philosophically I wouldn't have a problem with that for disadvantaged kids. But let me tell you what, that was before we had five years of this administration that is absolutely totally dismantling our public school system day by day."
• Early February: "I will veto any type of legislation that puts a single dollar into any voucher program, period."
• Late February: "I'm not saying I would never support them. I'm saying that I would take vouchers off the table for discussion. No more talk until we address the needs of public schools."

Abortion

• 1985: "She refused to discuss her position on abortion." — Austin American-Statesman
"She has been pro-choice on abortion, although she now says she opposes abortion personally and would rule out tax dollars for its practice, except in cases of rape incest or where the mother's life is threatened." — Christian Science Monitor

• 1990s: Signed pledges for the Republican National Coalition for Life to oppose abortion and told Greater Austin Right to Life that she supported overturning the Supreme Court decision allowing abortions.
• Now: "I have made my position very clear. As a mama and a grandmama, I believe in the sanctity of life, but I understand that there are those heartbreaking situations where heartbreaking decisions have to be made."

Sources: News reports, campaign statements and documents of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts